This report addresses one of four tasks outlined in the Urban Flood Demonstration
Program’s (UFDP) “Investigating Groundwater-Surface Water Interaction Above and
Below the Albuquerque Drinking Water Diversion Dam.” The UFDP is a project initiated
by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) with a focus on urban flood
damage reduction, river channel restoration, and development of technologies to address
these actions in the Middle Rio Grande of central New Mexico (USACE, 2006). The
project involves collaboration between the USACE Engineering Research and
Development Center (ERDC), the Desert Research Institute of Nevada (DRI), Sandia
National Laboratories (SNL), and the University of New Mexico’s Civil Engineering,
Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Biology Departments.
More specifically, this report concerns hydrological monitoring of groundwater
wells installed with pressure transducers at four Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program
(BEMP) sites which bracket the Albuquerque Drinking Water Diversion Dam (DWD).
The data obtained from these pressure transducers are coupled with river discharge and
stage data from the USGS #08329918 (at Alameda Bridge) river gauge located
approximately 450 meters north of the DWD, to provide a database for the purpose of
estimating the interaction between groundwater and surface water, as well as the potential
effects of the DWD in this urban stretch of the Rio Grande.
Also included in this report is a description of the monitoring sites, the techniques
used to install shallow groundwater wells and manage pressure transducers, and a
presentation and analysis of groundwater data results from before, during and after DWD
construction, with a focus on the first year of baseline data covering the period of October
2006 – September 2007. This data is used to perform a variety of analyses which assist
in understanding how groundwater levels are influenced by river discharge, rain events,
DWD trial operations, and soil properties.
Key findings of this study indicate that soils within the study reach are
conductive, with groundwater responding quickly to river stage changes. Ground water
levels are mainly a function of the boundary conditions (river and riverside drains), and
become deeper towards the levees. Lateral hydraulic gradients are less than one percent
between wells, with no major changes during the study period. Effects of DWD
construction produced about a 9-month disruption in water tables mainly at the Diversion
(ED10) site. Water tables then returned to pre-construction values.

Description

A Professional Project Report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Water Resources, Water Resources Program, University of New Mexico.